Pujol's Phantom Agents Fooled Hitler

Spanish double agent Juan Pujol Garcia helped save tens of thousands of Allied lives during D-Day by convincing Germany that the Normandy landings were a diversion. Working with British intelligence under the code name Garbo, he used a network of 27 imaginary agents to claim that the main invasion would strike the Pas-de-Calais. His reports persuaded Hitler to keep powerful German divisions near Calais even after the Normandy assault had begun. Germany awarded Pujol the Iron Cross, while Britain appointed him a Member of the Order of the British Empire, making him the first and reportedly only person decorated by both sides during World War II.

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